Dat Thrust Reversal, tho…
By the way, guys, I just remembered when looking throufh my FS storage disk - I have a huge collection of missions for FSX. I know many of them are pretty good - but I haven’t had time to fly many of them. I got them from lots of different places on the net - the usual file download places like AVSIM, Flyaway etc. There are over 600 of them and I’m quite happy to upload them so anyone can have quick access to them. I think they will probably only work in FSX, though.
In fact, I will upload them to my Google drive and post a link. Sorry a bit OT there - it just came to mind.
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With the amount of water that needed crossing, almost half a globe’s worth of it from where I am
@Sine_Nomine - alternatively you could go the long way round. 
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EGLK → Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport (LFPG)
Loaded up with locally sourced ales and treats, I’m ready for the off. Taxying out to line up on the runway, there’s a sense of deja vu. Its probably to do with the appalling weather. Apparently the Met office have called it “Storm Brian” - storm in a teacup more like.
Haven’t we been here before
Increasing the throttles slowly, we started rolling down the runway. I was ready to correct the swing when the tail came up, but I wasn’t ready for the violent kite into the wind. 30 seconds into the flight and the DC-3 was already trying to kill me. I guess the crosswind was greater than I thought.
A bit of left stick and rudder and I managed to get her back onto the hard stuff. The undergrowth still hadn’t been cleared and I hoped it wasn’t going to snag anything. Slowly I gained altitude avoiding the trees and anything sharp. That was an ugly takeoff.
Not one for the purists
I’d spent a bit of time reading the release notes and the workarounds for the autopilot. I’d dialled in Midhurst VOR/DME/“radio thing” and got a heading and distance. Clicking on the autopilot and having a fiddle with the rudder trim (auto pilot workaround) I turned onto the correct heading and the numbers started to tick down. Result! Look at me, I can do this pilotty stuff. 
The filthy weather was a lot thicker than expected and the cloud tops were up around 10,000ft. I’d planned on 6,000ft so I could check my navigation, but there was little opportunity through the murk.
Switching to Seaford VOR, I turned and headed for what should be the coast. Still no break in the cloud to check. I’d dialled in the VOR at Dieppe on N2 and was picking that up and waited for the needle to swing onto the heading.
The time ticked on and I was starting to get worried and began to doubt myself. It was a quite a few minutes after when I expected, before the needle finally swung round. I think I let out a little cheer.
Finally the cloud broke and I could see I’d crossed the coast.
See you in a few weeks/months
Looking good
Eventually the French coast came into sight. Checking the map, I was slightly north of track. Not bad.
“Enemy coast ahead, skipper” - Dieppe in the background
The next 60 miles passed without incident. Again I started to wonder if I’d got the nav right. I’d dialled in Charles De Gaulle VOR, but there was no DME so was on the stopwatch. The speed was slower than I’d planned by around 10mph, which was helping with the doubt. Even though I could clearly see Paris and knew the approximate location was correct, I was very relieved to see the airport.
There’s was a just a bit of crosswind as I lined up on the runway to try and complicate things.
Crosswind landing
Touchdown was firm and I immediately vacated the runway, I’m not sure ATC meant me to use the grass, I blame the wind. 
Poor parking
Leg one done.
The positives are that there was no checking of the in game map. I can do the nav, though I need to have a bit more confidence with it.
I must check the weather before departure!!
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You folks are sure looking good in the Douglas. It’s been a little while since I flew the gooney bird, as dad used to call the C-47, but does’t it have a lockable tail wheel?
Oh okay, I’ll do it in XP11 too. Will probably look a bit drab with the default scenery, but I have downloaded some stuff yesterday - SimHeaven mods and ATC and traffic - so might stay awake the whole way…
Going to be a helluva trip from here, though.
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Personally I think that the default scenery in XP11 is pretty decent overall. I added a mod for the rendering of water the other day which gets rid of the repetitive pattern you see normally, and X-Enviro was a bit of a cash splurge, but I am very pleased with the aesthetic look it gives to the weather.
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Nice job @keets ! The Aeroworx DC3 cockpit looks really great (significantly better than the VSkyLabs DC3 pit)…
I’m interested in what the water mod is. I was going to put a lovely picture as I crossed the channel, but the repetitive texture ruined it.
You’re not wrong. I’m amazed it’s freeware. It still has rough ages, but you can’t complain at the price.
Hmm, I’m having stability issues with XP11. Think I need to put it on an SSD
Here you go. I went with the “More Waves” file. Of course, you all might want to wait for the org to get their hacking situation sorted out.
It isn’t perfect, but I think it is better than the default water…
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Wikipedia’s entry for the DC-3/C-47 is a good read, I didn’t realise Gooney bird was another name for an Albatross and why it was attributed to the DC3/C-47/Dakota* *Delete as applicable. Has any aircraft ever had so many designations? DC-3, C-47, Skytrain, Dakota…
Lockable tail wheel, yes it does indeed. A dirty great lever (pronounced “leeeee-ver” in proper English) down by the right leg, but has no effect once the tail is up. 
This has to be the top quote of the thread so far… Genius. 
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I am seriously tempted to buy SailAway. I am never likely to own a boat of any description that is bigger than a Kayak, but the romance of sailing is appealing to me. I took a Hobie Cat out once while I was on a layover in Turks and Caicos. I sailed it around for about an hour and was able to get it back on the beach at the point where I started, so I consider that a win 
.
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OH MY GOD what an adventure! Sweaty palms, heart racing… I just need to tell you guys about it.
So… my first leg is from CYUL (Montreal) to KBFI (Boeing Field). I picked KSEA as my alternate. It’s an almost 2000 miles trip.
I planned my fuel load at 35000 lbs… at least, that’s what “onlineflightplanner” tells me. My ride of choice for this leg is a magnificent A320 with a superb Air Canada skin. However, I decided to do the challenge “live”, which means real weather and real time. This meant starting at 22:00 local time, at night. Keep in mind that I never flew at night before in this aircraft and I never planned such a long route. This can only go well, right?
I spawn at Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport. I run into some troubles entering my flight plan (surprisingly, I didn’t know what “DTC” stood for or why I needed to delete a manual waypoint in order to get rid of discontinuities), but after some tinkering I get something that looks ok. I taxi to the runway and fly into the night.
Au revoir, Montreal!
I climb up to FL250 and engage the autopilot. It’s gonna be a looong night. I skim through my own A320 guide, hoping to find something useful. Eventually, I decide to climb to a cruising altitude of 30,000 ft. The plane tries, but loaded with gifts and 35000 lbs of fuel, it straight up struggles to climb a few hundred foot more. Bah, we’ll stick at 25,000 for now.
I barely see anything outside. Just a dark, gloomy sky with medium cloud cover. As I cross Manitoba and Saskatchewan, I encounter wind drafts and minor turbulence. By then, the aircraft feels much lighter; I’ve almost gone through half my fuel. I start climbing to FL300 without much problem.
Eventually, as I reach the J7 airway (no idea if it still exists today, but at least it did in AIRAC 1609… and being a cheap ■■■■■■■ I don’t feel like buying for a Navigraph update), a powerful wind throws my aircraft left and right. The turbulence is so sudden and so strong that my autopilot disconnects. I freak out and catch back the controls, following the flight director while toying with the throttle to fix my autothrottle that went haywire. I start a 20-minute long struggle to keep my aircraft on course while being thrown left and right by the wind.
Things eventually calm down. Whew! That was cool. Now, how am I doing on fuel?
3000 lbs. What?!? Where did it all go? Oh, that’s right… the CRUISE page says that I’ve chugged 32000 lbs of fuel already. Oh boy. That’s not good, eh? Curse you, FuelPlanner.com!!! I’m never trusting you again!
I reach my top of descent… but I’m so low on fuel! Ack! What am I doing? As I reach the vicinity of Seattle, the tower hails me and gives me a priority to land. The fuel goes dangerously low. I start my approach…
And as I’m just about to engage the Autoland, the aircraft just bypasses the ILS localizer as if it wasn’t even there. Uh oh… I must’ve missed something! Now I’m really mad. I’ve been sitting for hours in that chair, in pitch dark… screw that. I’m landing this thing manually. I’m 2000 ft high with 400 lbs of fuel. I’ve got one shot at this.
I gently bank left and do a full 360 to catch the runway. I hear the SPEED voice telling me I’m dangerously close to stall speed. I know that, but if I throttle up too much, then I burn my fuel and get an engine flameout before I touch the ground. I’m feeling tense. REALLY tense. I can’t mess this up. Not after such a long flight.
SPEED! SPEED!
SPEED!
I don’t even want to look at the fuel indication. My hand is squeezing my joystick like my life is on the line.
My wheels touch the ground surprisingly gently given the fact that I rarely practice manual landings in the Bus. As the autobrake engages, my left engine flames out, and I start getting assymetric thrust. I kick the rudder and maintain control of the aircraft… and it rapidly slows down to a stop.
I can now start breathing again. Just when I’m done vacating the runway, the other engine flames out. No more fuel. WOW. That was a bit too close for comfort, eh?
So there I am, in Boeing Field with my Airbus. First leg to Christmas Island complete.
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Awesome AAR!
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Well seeing this entry I have decided Silent Hunter 5 will be my vehicle for this years event. Best make a start.
Er which way is it from Kiel docks ?
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